Faced with losing an ambitious $1-billion plan to revamp the Los Angeles River, Mayor Eric Garcetti on Friday raised the stakes by offering to split the cost with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The corps, which manages the river as a flood control channel, last year recommended a $453-million package of parks, bike paths and other enhancements to make the river more inviting to Angelenos. It recently informed the mayor's office that it was sticking with that plan rather than pursuing the $1-billion version, known as Alternative 20, that Garcetti backs.

Are the millions of dollars spent to try to reverse childhood obesity a good investment? One answer might be found in the cost if the condition goes unchecked: about $19,000 per obese child in lifetime medical costs, researchers reported Monday. That's $14 billion just for the obese 10-year-olds in the United States, according to researchers at the Duke Global Health Institute and the Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School in Singapore. They reported their results in the journal Pediatrics.

April 3, 2014 | By Jean Merl, This post has been updated. See the note below for details.

The controversy over a stalled effort to overturn a state ban on affirmative action spilled into a hot race for Congress this week when six Democratic state legislators rescinded their endorsements of state Sen. Ted Lieu (D-Torrance). In a March 25 letter mailed to Lieu's congressional campaign office, the legislators asked their colleague to "remove our names from your list of endorsements for Congress. " As of Wednesday evening, the names no longer were listed under the endorsement page on Lieu's campaign website . The letter was signed by Lieu state Senate colleagues Ricardo Lara of Bell Gardens, Norma Torres of Pomona and Holly Mitchell of Los Angeles and by Assembly members Lorena Gonzalez of San Diego, Anthony Rendon of Lakewood and Jose Medina of Riverside.

WASHINGTON - The Affordable Care Act has passed its first big test, but the law's distribution of winners and losers all but guarantees the achievement will not quiet its political opposition. White House officials, who had a near-death experience with the law's rollout six months ago, were nearly giddy Tuesday as they celebrated an open-enrollment season that ended on a high note. Despite the early problems with the federal website, "7.1 million Americans have now signed up," President Obama declared in a Rose Garden speech to members of Congress, his staff and supporters in which he notably returned to referring to the law as "Obamacare.

Monday is the last day to begin the process of signing up for insurance under the Covered California statewide health exchange. But even for many of those already enrolled, the challenges are just beginning. Consider, for instance, the work to be done in figuring out your new health plan's coverage for prescription drugs. For people who take medications on an ongoing basis, it's especially important to closely evaluate details of a health plan's drug coverage. For Tina Petrakis, selecting a new health plan through Covered California meant paying close attention to the medications each policy covered.

Re “Couple shocked by 90% rate hikes,” Column, March 25 Change the names from “Mike and Judy Holtzman” to “Norm and Susan Zareski” and from “John Hancock” to “CalPERS,” and my wife and I could have been the subjects of David Lazarus' column on long-term care insurance and the shocking price increases. In our case, the projected increase by 2015 is 85%. This comes after several smaller increases over the last five to 10 years. What's going on here? Norm Zareski Palos Verdes Estates I felt like I was reading a bit of personal history in this column.

Airlines will never win a prize for sensitivity to customers' problems. They typically won't budge on change fees and ticketing costs. But you'd think that even the most hard-hearted carrier would acknowledge that, all things considered, this isn't the best time for a family trip to Russia. The situation in Ukraine prompted the U.S. State Department to issue a travel advisory March 14 warning Americans about "the possibility of violence or anti-U.S. actions directed against U.S. citizens or U.S. interests.

Dozens of students rallied at a meeting of the California State University governing board Wednesday, chanting and hoisting signs that urged the chancellor and trustees to roll back "success fees" that are raising costs on many campuses. More than 100 students marched in front of the police-guarded entrance of the chancellor's Long Beach office shouting, "We got 99 problems and student debt is one," and "No cuts, no fees, education should be free. " Campuses in San Diego and Fullerton recently joined nine others in enacting the fees to help pay for more classes, faculty hiring, counseling and other services.

Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw , scratched from starting Sunday in San Diego because of injury, said he believes he can return to action a few days later. "Hopefully, it's just one start," Kershaw said Wednesday. "If I had to pitch [Sunday], I could probably do it. It just wouldn't feel good. " Hyun-Jin Ryu is the likely starter Sunday, with Dan Haren ready if Ryu's toe injury is not healed by then, Dodgers Manager Don Mattingly said. The Dodgers are off Monday, and Mattingly said Zack Greinke would start Tuesday.

Levi Strauss & Co., the San Francisco apparel company best known for its denim clothing, said it will remove 800 jobs as part of an effort to cut $175 million to $200 million in costs. The so-called global productivity initiative will roll out over the next 12 to 18 months, the company said Wednesday. The first phase is expected to result in $75 million to $100 million in savings, the company said. The job cuts, which will affect 20% of Levi's non-retail and non-manufacturing employee base, are to occur during the period.